Unprofitable scope of rural industrial operations

Rapid urban industrialization around the world has been followed by many rural communities starting small-scale industrial operations, using locally available human and natural resources, in the hope of providing an adequate economic base for the whole community. Such development has, however, been patchy. There are untapped skills and industrial possibilities in many such communities which local residents would like to find a way to exploit. Some communities have not established factories or commercial operations at all, while in others the scope of such industrial operation is unprofitable. There are various reasons for this: the infrastructure may be extremely limited; transportation costs for any industry are high, and agriculture and home production patterns are not geared toward reaching the greatest possible number of buyers; home production of clothing, woodwork or other items may not have been exploited for market sales. Meanwhile, families are split as children and parents search for work outside their villages, despite the desire locally for residents to return to the community and that sufficient earnings should be available to sustain them.